Senior Soaring Championship - Mar 16 Report

This morning brought us the fourth straight hard frost in central Florida - with a credit card you could easily have scraped enough rime ice from any wing for a snowball fight. Fortunately, the sun was bright and by launch time delivered temperatures in the low 70s, good for moderate lift to over 3000 ft. By the end of the day, we were in shirt sleeves with temperatures in the high 70s, and pilots were frequently climbing to over 4000 ft.

Rich Owen defended his first place position in the best way possible, with a day win at 56 mph over a course of 112 miles. Fernando Silva held on to second, and Doug Jacobs wound up third.

Soaring conditions were bluer and weaker than most would have wished, but we finish with 5 contest days, around 300 launches, and a total of cross-country soaring miles probably in excess of 20,000; problems were few and damage was nil. I expect most pilots are planning to be back in 2019 (possibly equipped with more warm clothing than they brought in 2018).